Storms
by thechocowhore
Summary: Pein has been defeated by Naruto and he's now the village hero. But what happened to Hinata's confession? Where will the two go from here?   NaruHina Oneshot- not au.   teen to be safe... :D


I don't know what it was, but there was something so peaceful about the rain. It's like it was a sign saying that this was a new start to our village. The wreckage Pein did was slowly being rebuilt. People from all over were helping the reconstruction, old friends and new. Streets were beginning to flood with water, carrying the left over debris away.

She was there on the bench. Her long black hair dripping wet and a bandage on her cheek. Hinata. Why was she alone in the rain? She was gonna get sick if she stayed out here. I slowly made my way to her.

"Hinata, why are you all alone without an umbrella?" I asked.

"Naruto! Umm Kiba and I were talking and then the rain started. He offered to walk me home, but I told him I wanted to be alone for a bit." She didn't look at me when she spoke.

"You can't stay in the rain forever, you'll get sick. Let me walk you home," I offered. She didn't say anything back, but I saw her give a small nod.

We spent a couple minutes without saying a word. The only noise came from the rain that seemed to be turning into a storm.

She was the one to start talking, which was a first for the both of us.

"It's really nice to see everyone working together. Seeing how we can all depend on each other shows how much we're like one big family, don't you think so?"

"Yeah," I replied, "Everyone's doing a great job."

We didn't say much else, but there was a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth when she did talk. And the way she spoke so surely about all this trust and hope in the village made it hard not to believe her. Eventually, we ran out of things to say and sunk back into the awkwardness.

"So," I finally broke the silence, "you're out of the hospital?"

"Oh yeah. I'm not allowed to do any physical activity but other than that I'm fi—"

"Do not say that you're fine." Anger flared inside me, "I cannot believe that you were that stupid to get involved with that fight in the first place! Hinata, what were you thinking? You could've died!"

Hinata stopped to stare at me. I could see that she was angry… but nothing prepared me for what I was about to get myself into.

"SO WHAT? Why are you the only one allowed to never give up? You're such a hypocrite Naruto, you know that! You're always putting your life on the line for the people you care about. And the one time you needed me, you just get mad at me for being like you? –"

I opened my mouth to say something, but Hinata was on a roll. She had this fire in her eyes that I'd never seen before. The rain was pouring harder now, but I couldn't tell if that was what was rolling down her cheeks.

"— admit it! If it weren't for me, you'd be a Naru-Kabob on a stick. But whatever. It doesn't matter what I did. You just go on with your life. I won't help you anymore. Don't expect me to. Goodbye Naruto."

She started running faster and faster, but I all I could do was watch. I thought about her words and how they stung. Hinata was always one of my strongest supporters. She always believed in me… and I had let her down.

"HINATA!" I ran after her, asking everyone in the streets if they'd seen her. They all said the same thing. They hadn't noticed her running through. I climbed up to the rooftops and saw her. I pushed myself to go faster but she was so far away.

I pounded on her door.

"Go away!" There was a loud thump on the door like she was imagining that it was my face she was punching.

I could hear her broken sobs from the other side of the door. My back slid down the door and I buried my face in my hands.

"Hinata—"

"Just leave me alone! I don't want to hear it."

"I'm sorry. You're right. You saved my life and I repaid you with a slap in the face."

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DOESN'T MATTER?"

She paused for a second then said, "I don't care if you hate me or if you love me. It doesn't matter because if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

I sat there, bewildered by her words. No matter how many times they ran through my head, I just couldn't make sense of them. Could I really love Hinata? I didn't know the answer to that. Lightning cracked and I was completely soaked. The door opened an inch, just enough for Hinata to look at me. Hinata, who was sitting on the floor as I was, hadn't softened in her attitude towards me. The anger had faded, but traces of it were left in her jaded eyes.

"Are you going to wait here all night?" She asked with a sigh.

"As long as I have to for you to talk to me again," I said firmly. I had to earn her forgiveness.

"Then come inside. You're the one who's going to get sick if you stay out there all night."

She got up, and then silently invited me inside. She sat me down in front of the fireplace. Then she left. I watched the fire and how it danced and flickered. It made this sputtering noise as rain drops fell through the chimney.

When Hinata returned, I was handed a towel and some a new pair of jeans. She pointed me in the direction of the bathroom. Closing the door, I changed out of my soaked clothes and put on the jeans. Obviously they were Neji's but they fit pretty well. I walked out drying my hair. Hinata sat where I had been in front of the fire with a cup of tea in hand. Another one was placed next to her.

Sitting next to her was uncomfortable. I had no answer to tell her and I could tell she wasn't going to talk to me until I had one. I was brave enough to take a quick glance and what I was looking at shattered me. Hinata was undoing one of the bandages that covered her shoulder and collarbone. The scars weren't fully healed and were pretty gruesome. I couldn't look away, though. She grimaced in pain as she put new gauze over the wound. The way her arm had to twist to wrap around this new bandage was clearly hurting her. I reached over and stopped her hand. Taking the bandage, I continued wrapping it around securely. A blush rose up into her cheeks. She whispered a soft 'thank you,' and gave me that shy smile of hers. And with that I finally had my answer.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself.

"Hinata, I'm sorry for all the things I've said today. You told me you loved me and then I almost lost you for good with no chance to see what I felt. The truth is I don't know what I feel. I never thought about it until you put it in my head. But I kept pushing it out because I didn't know what was going to happen. I've been avoiding you because of how confused you've made me. I love being you're friend, but I don't think now is the best time to find out if we should be more. I'm sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted to hear—" I let my sentence drift as she tackled me in a hug. My arms wrapped around her. We broke it a couple moments later but she still sat next to me, leaning on my side.

"Naruto, it's ok. I'm glad you were honest and I never meant to do that to you. I just didn't want to leave this world without you knowing how I feel. And who knows, maybe sometime in the future we can try this out."

"You got yourself a deal." She laughed at me and I smiled. We spent the rest of the night talking and laughing and waiting for the rain to stop. Things weren't like they were before. We both knew nothing would be the same. But I knew we'd be ok in the end, because this was the beginning of our new start.


End file.
